BERLIN, April 1 (Reuters) - Bentley Motors' top designer has
criticised Ford's new Lincoln Continental, fretting on
social media about the car's similarities with one of its own
models, Automotive News reported late on Tuesday.

The Lincoln Continental luxury saloon, unveiled this week by
Ford at the New York auto show, resembles the Bentley Flying
Spur, Automotive News reported, citing comments by Bentley
design chief Luc Donckerwolke that were picked up by online
publication Car Design News.

"Do you want us to send the product tooling?" Donckerwolke
posted on Lincoln designer David Woodhouses' Facebook page, a
comment that was subsequently deleted, Automotive News said.

"This behaviour is not respectable. Building a copy like
this is giving a bad name to the car design world," Donckerwolke
was quoted as saying by Car Design News.

A spokesman for Bentley, part of Volkswagen,
sought to vindicate Donckerwolke's views.

"Car design is always an emotive subject and one of the
reasons so many of us love cars," the Crewe, England-based
carmaker said in a statement published on Wednesday. "Our
designers have strong views and are passionate about what they
do, which drives them to create such extraordinary cars."
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